9 Pillars to Become a CEO Warrior | Podcast Ep. 83 | Toolbox for the Trades

Mike Disney and Mary Anglin, welcome to the Toolbox for the Trades podcast.

Thanks for having us. We're super excited to be here with you today.

So excited.

Mike, you are the chief operating officer of CEOWarrior. And Mary, you are a master advisor who actually was a Warrior before you joined the team. I'm really excited to learn about your own journeys and how you got to CEO Warrior. We're going to start off the podcast the way we do every single one we're going to, which is how did you get into the trades? And Mike, you can take this answer first.

Wow. So my journey is pretty interesting. So I was a auto mechanic by trade. I owned a couple businesses in central New Jersey that were automotive centric auto, electric transmission and general repair. And I had the fortune of managing the fleet for Gold Medal Service, which is the two founders of CEO Warrior. And so I happened to meet those guys along the way, managing their fleet, fixing their trucks for them. Life throws curveballs. And I ended up selling my business due to partnership kind of thing. And I had an opportunity to move over to Gold Medal Service to run a retail division where they were doing a Costco program. Most of your listeners may be aware of that. And that program running the H Vac through the kiosk program. I took that job from a retail manager up into director of sales at Gold Medal Service. And in the interim at Gold Medal Service, before Mike and Rob exited, we built CEO Warrior. And it's been a journey and quite frankly a vocation ever since. So my discipline in the trades is in the director of sales position that I held was H Vac sales, underground sales, one one day bath remodel, as well as some waterproofing stuff and all the outbound division out of Gold Medal Service as well as all the install functions. So that's my trade. My trade background. But, but I did turn wrenches my early life for money. So I know exactly what all that's about.

Noted. And thank you for that clarification. So interesting that Gold Medal Service, while it was operating, it developed this coaching strategy, this coaching mindset while the company was growing. I'm finding that trend actually continues to this day with a lot of shops that are fairly big and they're like, let me teach you how we're doing it. So it's really interesting to get that background. Mary, same question. How did you get into the trades?

Yes. So I've been in the trades a little over a decade and I actually started for a very small commercial H Vac company in North Texas, and they hired me to be a project manager. So they hired me to basically coordinate and do proposals for large scale commercial installations. So I remember on my second day on the job, I was calling different helicopter companies so that we could use. We could actually airdrop a 20 ton unit onto a roof. And so I was severely under qualified for the job. I worked for Six Flags right before that, and so didn't really have any idea what I was doing. Absolutely fell in love with the trades, fell in love with service business owners, and just have not looked back since. And so now at this point, I've done pretty much every job that you can do other than like hooking gauges up to an actual unit. And I actually have done that a couple of times, but. But pretty much any other position, I've done it and I just, I absolutely love it.

That is incredible. I am just picturing having to coordinate that call of them being like, well, how heavy is the unit? You're like, I don't know, like, does it matter?

I won't have 20 times. Is that not how it works?

Yeah. So I want to get a little bit to the origin of CEO Warrior, and I think, Mike, you're probably best suited to tell us the story there. So talk to me a little bit about how Gold Medal Service created CEO Warrior and what you guys are focusing on today.

Yeah, so it's been an amazing journey. And it's really kind of how it starts is really kind of the magic of all of it. Right. So it's two buddies. They're electricians in central New Jersey. They're working out of one van, and they go through this journey of just wake up in the morning, do a job, and work as many hours as you can to support the family. And then they get to this point in life where they just want to be more for more people, more for their family, more available, spend more time with their kids as their kids start to get older, and they just miss that family time. So they start building a really pretty sizable company. Right? They go out there, three trades, they're electric, they're plumbing, they're heating and cooling. They're really developed in central New Jersey. They start really forcing themselves into the market as the best solution. And these guys take that journey as they build this exceptional company, and they start recognizing that, man, our recipe really, really works. And so a lot of people that they were in circles of are like, coming to the shop, they're learning from us. They're spending a day with me as the sales director, spending a Day with my install coordinator sitting in my dispatch room and just learning all the disciplines that we were really good at. And what happens is these guys are like, man, we can really make a bigger change if we start helping some of these business owners with the day to day suffering that they have. And so kind of what Mary said, we just fall in love with these guys that do what we do. Right. The service world is just, it's just filled with great, great, outstanding people that want to serve their communities. And so that's really where it started from. And so we started helping business owners. They get to come to our business, they get to see Gold Medal in action, they learn the discipline of what we did on a day to day basis. And now it's at a level where quite frankly we are, we outgrew that business. We're in another building, we're about to outgrow that. Our journey today. And the whole world, the whole market's crazy, right. So there's all this private equity money. All these people that are coming into our world may just, you know, they're really technical, they know how to do the work, but they struggle in the business acumen of the day. So we help them with that, but it's start to finish. Where are we, where do we want to go? And so our main focus today is build the process and system business that can deliver them the profit to be sustainable and make sure that they're really trajectory, trajectory towards where are they going to exit? What does it look like? How does it look like for you? Because we're all going to exit one way or the other and it's a whole journey. So for us, if you're one guy in a truck, we got a recipe. If you're a $15 million company, what are we doing and what's the next level? So for us it's really kind of getting the right people to kind of consult with them on what their true needs are because everybody has a different need.

Got it. And so Gold Medal service still exists today.

Yeah. So Mike and Rob probably, I think we're kind of approaching the three and a half, four year mark where they sold to a private equity firm. A lot of you guys know Sun Capital came in and bought a bunch of people at one time. They have been since rolled up in that horizon group that everybody knows. Super, super proud of the work that my friends are doing over there and what they've done since that sale. I have some real, I have family members of mine that are doing exceptional work still in this market. And they're growing robustly. So really excited about what they're doing for the market, for sure. And they raise it all up for all of us. Right. Because they do exceptional work.

Awesome. Yeah. I have to ask, because we were talking a little bit before we pressed record, that my roots are somewhat embedded in New Jersey. And that is where you are, and that's where CEO Warrior started. I have to ask, how does the central Jersey culture fit into the culture of CEO Warrior?

Well, I think it's not so much. So I'm not born and raised in New Jersey. I'm born and raised in Baltimore. But I think the reality is that the Jersey, if you're going to give it a Jersey flavor, it's just being completely direct. I think that's really what it's about. I don't think in business world today you got time for fluff. I don't think you need these comforting lies. You need the hurtful truth. Because if you don't have the hurtful truth, you can't improve. And that's really what it comes down to. I could sit here and tell you how amazing you are, but if you're not amazing, I'm probably not doing you any justice. So if I could show you where your challenges are. I think being direct and kind of right to the point helps you way more than just being this person who's going to give you a little bit of fluff along the way. So, look, New Jersey is a. I guess that's a concept everybody, especially you guys on the west coast, right? What is Jersey like? When we walk in the room, maybe they recognize us through our language and our accents, but I've never met more caring people than the people that I've been surrounded by in central New Jersey, who I worked with at Gold Medal, and certainly our founders and what they've done for the industry. So, yeah, it's a direct approach that helps people propel to a success that maybe they wouldn't have found some other way.

I'll tell you too, Jackie, that I'm a good old girl from Texas, right? Born and raised in Texas. And it's one of the things that I loved most when I first got to know CEO Warrior was just. It's raw. I grew up with four brothers, two in the military, and so we just didn't hold back. We didn't. I just. I always kind of just took it in the teeth anytime somebody was talking to me. And so when I got to know everybody at CEO Warrior, you almost immediately feel like you're just kind of a part of this movement because there's so much energy and you never have to wonder what they think about you. And you never have to wonder whether or not they're telling you the truth. And so when, when I first got to know him, that Jersey. And maybe it's Jersey, and maybe it's just the heart of CEO Warrior, but I'll tell you, it's one of the things I appreciated most. Nobody's telling me to bless my heart or anything like that. They're just telling me exactly how it is.

Yeah, they're telling you to get out of the way. I'm from a New Yorker. My mother's from Jersey. I love Jersey. That's why I wanted to talk about it. But this is a great segue, actually, Mary, into you coming on board to CEO Warrior, because like I mentioned, you were a member of the Warrior community before you became became a master advisor. So I would love to learn a little bit about your experience being in the CEO CEO Warrior community. And then what was the catalyst that made you go, I'm going to join them?

Yeah, absolutely. So I was, I actually came into the CEO Warrior world as what we call a pillar to a member. So I was the director of operations for a company in North Texas and I came on as like an implementer. Some of you guys, you're familiar with just that role of get done, right? And so, and so that's the role that I came into. And I loved how actionable everything that CEO Warrior gave us was. It wasn't like I had to go there and recreate the wheel. It was, here's exactly what you need to do now. Just go make it happen. And so that's what I got to do. And I loved that. So then I started my own company. So when I started my own company, it became even more. I just leaned on CEO Warrior and the processes and the knowledge so much more. Well, going through that process of the Director of Operations and then moving to start my own company and then exiting that company, well, now what I get to do is help other business owners do that. And when you are in the CEO Warrior world, you're a warrior forever. Like, there is no walking away, There is no leaving. Like, it wouldn't matter if I moved to Australia. Well, heck, we've got warriors in Australia, but it wouldn't matter where I went, I would always be a Warrior. And so being a part of the team just made sense. It made sense for the next, for the next step. So plus, I just have a Passion for helping business owners. It's such instant gratification to help someone talk somebody, coach them through a situation, and then immediately see it have an impact on their business, on their life, on their relationships, on their kids. That's. I mean, that's a game changer for me. Who, who wouldn't want to do that? It's a dream job.

So 100%. I didn't realize that you opened your own business and then went to CEO Warrior. I think that's fascinating. But my one big question for you is one of. What is one of the biggest things you learned as a member that you try and communicate to members now within your current role?

Yeah, so it's. We do a. We have a nine pillars program. And I'll tell you that I talk about it all the time. It's foundational for us. It's the biggest thing that I learned and applied in every aspect of the business. And so it's a process of going through, getting your mind right, making sure you've got the skill sets that you need to applying clarity within your company and accountability and then moving into a coaching and a managing process. And as we move through some. And that's some of the nine pillars. But that concept of laying down a foundational structure for your business before you try to grow is so crucial for anyone who wants to expand. Too often I talk to somebody who's, let's say, struggling to handle heating and air conditioning. And so their solution to their cash flow or their process problems is to add another trait. Well, let's try to add plumbing or something. And I. And to talk to them and say, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Let me explain these nine pillars to you because you're trying to build a house on a foundation that's not there. And so having those foundational things in place, those processes in place, the concepts that you can, that you can pour into your entire team, it's not just something the owner knows. Everybody on your team has to be deeply involved in that process is just a game changer. And so now, man, you can build a skyscraper and you're going to be fine, and it's going to be exactly what you need. But too often they skip those steps. And so that's the biggest thing that I think I took away from it. And then now I'm able to work with business owners and share with them.

That's awesome. And definitely something we hear on the podcast literally all the time. Mike, I saw you nodding while Mary was talking about laying the foundation. So I want to Give you a chance to add your own opinion to what you just shared.

Yeah. So the nine pillars are something that are just incredibly foundational. Right. So they're pillars that we've kind of, our founder designed them, actually wrote a book about them, but we teach it in everything we do. There are nine concepts of really kind of, how do you just become a better you? Who. How's it a better version of you? So running through mindset, skill set, action set, obviously you get a good flavor for what that means and says and like, look from the warrior world the moment you walk through our doors. We recognize day one of any of our trainings, we're working on you. Because if you, if we can't change you, all we're going to do is have noise for three or four days. And we're not here to create this level of comfort. We're here to kind of change your life. And so working on you from a mindset, skill set and getting shit done, like Mary said prior, that's what it's all about. Right. And so, and then recognizing that when you get through the crux of the nine pillars and you start focusing on clarity, alignment, accountability with your team and what does that mean for your next steps and then how do you coach, trainer to manage on a daily basis? Those are the nine pillars that we've implemented and really kind of impregnated all of our training with. And quite frankly, that's what makes us different, because it's not just about, here's a widget, go run with it. It's about, this is what it does for you, and this is how you get other people to buy into it and understand what it does for them from a lifestyle standpoint, from a sustainability standpoint. So when you hear Mary talk about the nine pillars, and I hear any of my coaches or any of my teammates talk about the nine Pillars, it's just all us. That hits us home because we teach it with such passion and quite frankly, we live it as parents every day. And it's. And it's one of those unbreakable things. Like, if you look at the nine pillars, it's truly an unbreakable process. And we really view CEO where you're just like that. We're not an organization, we're a process. So if you follow us, you're going to have success and whatever that means for you. And the nine pillars speak to that at a high, high level.

Nice. I love calling out that you apply this not only to business life, but also to parenting. You know, we've talked about mindset a lot on this podc, and it's really interesting how we haven't intentionally talked about that, but it just naturally comes up, which is getting in the right mindset and getting your mind straight, focusing on what matters, potentially correcting some negative thoughts you have about yourself or about the way your company is and kind of getting that gunk out of the way so you can move forward.

Yeah, totally.

Real quick, I'm going to pivot. But Mike, I just want to bring your attention to whenever you. I do this too, whenever you like, hit the table, it shakes a bit and we can hear it. So as best you can, just try not to pound on them. Put on.

I will try my hardest.

Trust me, you'll see me like this. So as a fellow east Coaster, I feel your pain. If it happens. No worries. All right, so what I really wanted to focus on during our chat today was what owners should look at on a regular basis if they want to grow, optimize their business, streamline things. And so I want to ask you guys, what reports should owners always look at first thing in the morning? And Mary, maybe you can take this one first.

Yeah, absolutely. So, I mean, I'm OG Service titan, almost five and a half years on service titan, so I'm not starting. I'm not doing anything without looking at my dashboard. Half the time it's on my iPad, pulling it out of my nightstand to look at my dashboards. Custom dashboards are a whole new ball game, so I won't even dive into that. But 100%. I've been looking at the dashboard for a long time. So just looking at some of those, what does my day look like? How booked am I? What kind of opportunity calls do I have on my board? What is my staffing situation look like? Are all my guys, especially going through these last two years of like Covid insanity, Knowing the staff state of all of everybody on your team is important. And so I start my day with just with that question on my mind of I just want to know the information that I need to know in order to communicate well with my team and to set everybody up for success. I've always felt like a leader's role in the company is not to tell people what to do. It's to be a resource for them and to make sure that they have all the tools that they need to be successful. So if I'm doing my job as a leader, then what I'm looking at first thing in the morning is what does my team need in Order to be successful, and how can I provide that for them?

I love that. I love as a leader, looking to yourself as a resource and not as someone who's manning the ship, necessarily. And I think you can look at those in different ways at different points in the business. Right. But I think that's great. Mike, anything you want to add in terms of I just woke up, I did my meditation on headspace or something. What's the first thing I should look at after I've zen myself out for the morning?

Yeah, Well, I think as a critical manager or an owner. Right. I think you should just be just like your people. You have daily huddles. You have those things. So the daily huddle report, understanding what we did the day before, what our expectation for the day is, I think anything that we can really look at in terms of supporting our staff, like Mary said, that's really the conduit to everybody's success. The companies that are extremely successful in the trades are focused on improving everything they do incrementally every day. So at the end of the week, end of the month, end of year, it's exponential. And for us, it's really looking at the reports from Solutionary. You know, what does it provide us? An insight on how do we improve the day? How do we win the day? And having a win the day concept starts with how we plan the night before and how we get really dialed in to what the expectation of the day is. So any reporting that you can have that speaks to where we were and where we're going is really, really powerful. And I think if you take what Mary said in terms of being a conduit to support to your team all the stuff that you learn and how you. How you articul that to your team and how you support them in that journey is everything.

That's awesome. And actually a really good segue into my next question, which is how does a company's individual goals impact the kind of data they should be looking at? And instead of adding more words to my question, I'll just ask it and give it to you, Mike.

Yeah, well, I mean, I think, like, look, I think we speak about something here at CEO Warrior on a repetitive basis. We're in a land of conversion. Bottom line, we're in a land of conversion, whether or not it's a booking percentage or it's a field conversion or a sales conversion or a lead turnover. So I think everybody's company goals, you could reverse engineer to get the framework of what success really looks like for them. What does it look like in terms of revenue? What does it look like terms of profit? What does it look like in terms of impact of efficiency? And how do we allocate our resources properly? So for us, it's really dialing into what lends to a better conversion rate. And I think everybody's goals, because if you've done a budget and you've come to our war planning, which we do every year for our clients, and you have a budget, just manage to the budget. It speaks to the conversion mechanisms, the average ticket mechanisms, and everything that leads to everything you built and you should be proud of. And so it's really a discipline of knowing where your targets are, because we don't call them goals, they're targets and where are we going to get there. And it's just supporting that along the way. And it all is predicated upon a conversion rate, whether be on the phone or in the house.

Got it. I like kind of stepping away from the stress of maybe growing your business or scaling or building to a certain revenue mark. But the goal is conversion. I like that as like just a simple mind switch. May I ask why you guys call them targets and not goals?

Well, because if you're just think about the US Military, they don't have goals, they have targets. And if they miss, they keep going until they hit it. And that's the way it is. You didn't put something in front of you, so you didn't get it. You put it in front of you because you need it and it's oxygen. So if you, if you really take your business structure and your planning to heart and you care about it, you're going to go make it happen. And so for us, there is no, there is no plan we don't achieve. It's just how quickly we get there.

That's awesome. And I just really want to say I'm really enjoying the way that CEOs mindset and how you have CEO warriors mindset and how you guys are looking at coaching is really permeating through both of your answers. So way to go on a branding perspective. I would love to talk a little bit about some common mistakes or assumptions that business owners make when they're trying to scale their business, or in your case, when they're trying to increase conversions. And Mary, maybe you can take this one first.

Sure. So the biggest mistake that I see every single day is business owners who think that revenue translates to the amount of money that you're making. Because revenue is for vanity, but profit is for sanity. And so when it comes right back to that conversation of, well, I've made this much in this many years and I've grown to this size or that size, it's not that, that doesn't matter. Of course, in order to manage your profitability, you do have to grow. But the reality of taking a step back, looking at your processes and always making sure that you're making money, because if you're not making money at the end of the day and you don't have anything left in the bank, what are you fighting for? And so that's the mistake I see is taking a look at that top line revenue number and going, oh, wow, I'm winning and not really knowing what it means to win.

Got it. What about you, Mike? Common mistakes.

I love top line revenue. I just like the profit that follows it too. So if we can increase both at the same time, that's fantastic. Here's what I'll say. Common mistakes are. In my, in my journey of my seven years with CEO Warrior, the biggest mistake that I see business owners make is that they promote people based on longevity and not skill set. And so what happens is what I've seen, and I'm sure Mary can attest to this, we have a lot of, we have a lot of people in the trades that are really comfortable with the personalities and the people on their team. It's easy, they're comfortable, there's a family feel to it. And what happens is we promote them, we give them more responsibilities, we give them probably skill set jobs that they haven't earned. And so what happens is through this longevity of employment, just because you've been with me 12 years doesn't mean you're my director of operations. But sometimes that takes place because there's an ease of that transaction for business owners, I think sometimes. So if you give that a. What's the common mistake? They take the easy way out, right? And so what they do is they find somebody who's easy to put in the, to plug a hole. They don't give them the training they need to accelerate their skill set or they just don't focus on having the right people in the right seats. And that's a common problem. And I think, like, look throughout the trades, a lot of people have those issues. Like sometimes you, you can't go forward with your family members if they're not going to work hard for you. Just because they have your last name doesn't mean they've earned the right to be on the team. And sometimes through necessity, we allow some of those things to happen. Happen.

Wow. I'm just going to let that sit for a second. Let some people marinate with that idea. What? I'm going to put you on a spot. On the spot a bit, because that is big, right? These are talk. You know, businesses are run by people that have emotions and souls and feelings. So, you know, as a business owner who wants to be lean, who wants to increase conversions and build a better business, and they have a person in place who's been with them for 12 years and they've got a great relationship with this person. He's maybe the godparent of their child or something like that. Oh, it would make sense for me to choose this person as my director of operations. But if I'm going to be really honest with myself, I don't think they're the right fit for this role. So how do people even begin to navigate that type of tricky situation?

Yeah, so really great question. And this is what we've developed as a tool and a mechanism to help people kind of overcome these kind of pitfalls. And so we have. We have something that's called a scorecard. Scorecard is a job description on steroids. It offers KPIs skills competencies for daily, weekly, monthly routines. And so if I were to have somebody who is near and dear to me, who I really care about, let's say they're a service expert out in the field and they want to come in and be a service manager, well, I just don't go, cool, I love you a lot. Here's the service manager hat. Wear it. And if you fail, it's okay, because I really love you. You. I go, here's the scorecard for the service expert to the service manager. And you have to learn these skills and competencies before you earn the right to hold that job. And so now they're learning what the Ascension model is in the business. And quite frankly, as. As your. As. As everybody hears this, they should recognize that if you don't have an Ascension model for your people, there's a natural ceiling that you've kind of promoted for them. So if you can give them the scorecard for the next position and the next position before they even get there, they're already learning the concepts and the skills that. And then it's easy to transition. But remember, like you said, people are emotional. They're people, we're human beings. Not everybody's a fit for every position, and you have to qualify them for it, and they have to run through a routine, and then you have to have a commitment to their training and their experience. And so what we've noticed along the way, even though they do go out and get some of these people, they still don't invest in their future and their growth and all that. So those are really the common challenges. But I'll tell you, if you have a mechanism of ascension and you teach them the skills and competencies, then it's certainly a possibility. But still, it's something you should be guarded about, for sure.

Yeah, I love that. I love having that Ascension plan in place. Mary, I saw you nodding, so I want to give you an option to respond to this ascension model, especially as a former business owner, too, and someone who was in that director of operations role.

It's so interesting that that's almost more valued now than a high salary. People are looking for where they're going to go in a business, and it kind of leans back onto. So we don't build organizational charts, we build accountability charts. So it's like that next level of here's not just your role, but here's the five processes that you own within that role. And so when we look at that accountability chart, it's like what Mike was saying is that people find positions for the people that are already with them, as opposed to looking at their business as a whole, saying, this is what my business needs to look like in an ideal situation. And the processes that are covered now let me find the right people to fill these roles. So when you have that in place and you see this, you know, I'm with no judgments and no names in mind, let me build this accountability chart that's designed for my size of business. And now let me look at the right fit for those. And the tough part is, is, you know, I know that there's people listening right now. As soon as he said, well, you've got that guy working for you for 12 years and he's just not a great fit. And some of you guys had a name pop into your head. And so now you're not in a position where you're trying to decide if they should be there or not. You know, that they shouldn't be there. And you're in this position of having to have the difficult conversation of maybe this isn't the right place for you, or maybe this isn't the right position for you. And it's so funny, I was actually on the lady Titans meeting earlier and we were talking some about this, that the easiest way to start a hard conversation is by saying it's going to Be a hard conversation. So if you're wondering, how do we do this and how do we just start the scorecard meeting, sit them down and say, listen, this is going to be a really crappy conversation, and I'm really sorry, but we're going to have to work through this together because it's just going to be what it is and let them mentally and emotionally start to process that conversation, too. And then that way, it just opens it up right there and says, this is going to be a new thing for us. It leans right back on the middle three of the nine pillars. Clarity, alignment, and accountability. So you have to be so careful when you put a scorecard or something like that into place. That's like shoving accountability in there. Before you have clarity and alignment, you need to go over the scorecard together. What do your KPIs look like? What are the skills and competencies that you need? Even if they're already in that role, it's okay to come to somebody and say, you're already in this role. You've been in this role for four years. Here's the skills and competencies you need for this position. You either got to learn them or you got to go find a different job and give them that opportunity to say, let's take 90 days and figure out if you're going to be able to do this or not. And then that way there's a lot of clarity on both sides, what's expected. And then once you have alignment, you're headed the same direction. They know your vision, they know your goals, they understand why you need somebody in that role with that level of skill set. And so then the accountability comes so easy. You're not going to have to sit in a second meeting with them and go, do you know what you're doing now? They're going to come to you and go, listen, I still don't have these skills. I just don't have them. It's not going to happen. And so the conversation gets easier when you set clear expectations with them. And so do that first and then move through that process. Just like what Mike was saying. It's just, it leans so much. And this is why I say the nine pillars are so foundational. Is there the answer to any question that comes up for me in my head? I go, listen, you think that it's going to be accountability? Like, you need to fill out this review and sit down with them every 90 days and tell them how much they suck. Well, the reality is that accountability isn't the problem. The Problem is clarity. They don't know what you want. They don't know what's expected. They don't even know who they're supposed to be or what their job looks like. And if you can fix that, then sometimes you might find that who you thought was the wrong person is actually the right one.

Clarity is kindness. I said it before on this podcast. Renee Brown, 100% agree with it. We've mentioned the pillars before and from what I'm learning in our conversation today, they are just these giant ideas that you inject in your members and it really forces them to rethink the way that they do business and the way that they run their systems and their processes. I would love it if both of you could share with me a really inspiring story that you've witnessed during your time at CEO Warrior, a really big transformational change that you've seen a member go through. And Mike, maybe you can start this one off.

Wow, inspiring story. Well, I have lots, I have lots of inspiring stories. So I think I'll go back to the very beginning when we had the backyard group, if you will, because I could probably find a lot of stories there. But I think the inspiring story for me, and I won't mention any names, but when we first started, There was about 17 members that we called the backyard guys that started the very beginning. They came to Gold Medal service, they learned, and it was service key at the time. It was not CEO Warrior. That's when our founders wore button up shirts and things were a little different. And then they realized this isn't who we are. We have to change our approach. And it all started with these guys with these 17. And I think a couple of these guys have come into our world and they have pretty, you know, pretty sound businesses for what they think. They're, they're small in stature, but they've, they've got generational businesses and they come in just looking for some information and multi trade businesses doing septic sewer, that kind of thing. And they learn, they come to an event and they get put into this, this crazy atmosphere that's full of energy and full of focus on them. And we challenge them first and foremost about who they are and what they do. And maybe we look at some of the habits. Maybe they smoke, maybe they dip, maybe they drink a lot, maybe they do whatever. And I'm going back to the beginning in the backyard and there's a couple guys in that, in that world where they change those behaviors and those behaviors propelled them to have better clarity with their team. Better understanding about where they were going, understanding the ownership, and really, quite frankly, the responsibility that they had. Because like being a business owner in today's world, I mean, the thing that our employees don't notice or recognize the most is the risk that we inherently have each and every day. And so these guys kind of uncovering that stuff because maybe they were handed the business from dad and recognizing that, man, I have to be a better person to lead these people to the next level. And then to look back that these guys are a bunch of, these guys are still in our world. And we're talking about companies that were 2 million at the time and are 15 million now with unbelievable leadership, impacting an amazing, amazing market that they're in. And I just think that like, I mean, I could go through a ton of inspiring stories, but to watch the journey from when they come to our events and if they play full out and they commit to what they're really there for, the change is just gonna happen, the change is gonna part, it's gonna participate in their lives. And those are the things for me that like, make. Make this a vocation, make it incredibly rewarding to do what we do on a day to day basis. Because watching success bleed not only into, but to all the families they serve, going from 10 employees to 70 and those 70 families that they have to have an impact for, man, I mean, if that's not inspiring in its own right, I don't know really what is.

No, I think that's a great answer. And I'm so happy that you spoke again to how the process that you guys have at CEO Warrior at the time, Service key was transformational for them in their personal lives. Right. Because how we show up in our personal lives will also bleed into how we show up in our business lives. So that's really impactful. And I was thinking while you were talking, like CEO Warrior equals therapy. Question mark. Maybe for some people it very well may be.

I think we have a couch or two around this building somewhere.

Typical psychoanalysis. Very Freudian. All right, Mary, same question. I would love to hear. You know, you've been in the master advisor role now for about a year, right? I would love to hear of a particular inspiration, inspirational story you have from either working with members or your time as being only a member yourself, even though you're obviously still in the community.

Yeah, of course. It's a. I'm kind of like Mike Disney. There's been so many transformational stories. The biggest ones do always seem to go back to the ones that are changing humans beyond just changing businesses. So when you start to look at individuals and the things that they're struggling with and the mind trash that just that they carry with them, and then allowing them to come into a space where they can be vulnerable, which is a huge challenge, especially in this industry, right, to step back and look at that and say you're dealing with business owners who admitting struggles and admitting weakness and being open and vulnerable is not. They don't always have a safe place to be able to do that. And so opening it up and saying, listen, like, maybe this isn't therapy, but list. But, but, but you can break a freaking board, you can walk on some fire, you can talk about these things, you can break an arrow with your neck. And that's how you can actually get through sometimes and say the change that you're making in yourself is what's going to change the business. We'll give you all the tools that you need to get your business to where it needs to go. Like, like that we can do, we can tell you what you need to do. But one thing that we can't do, that you have to do yourself is fix you and get you where you need to be. Or even sometimes just accepting that you are exactly where you need to be and you're worthy and qualified and good at this. And so the biggest transformation, I just. So there's business owner that came to. I think he was in the warrior world even before I was, but he was working a family business business. And so then when he came into the warrior world and kind of realized what it was going to take from a mindset level and then in a business level to get to where he wanted to go. Well, he grew the business, exited the business, and didn't just change his life, but actually changed his brother's lives, his dad's life, his mom's life, and had such a huge impact on every single person around him. I just can't. I can't get past situations like that where I get to see people change, which makes the business change. And just watching that their mind open up to what they're capable of. And seeing somebody go from doubt and fear and struggle and pain and not knowing how they're going to make payroll next Friday to a place where they say, I am a strong, unstoppable warrior and I'm 100% going to do whatever it takes to hit my target. You can see it change on their face. And I think I've probably seen it a couple hundred times. And so Picking out one is a challenge, but I can say like, I can think of names in my head of like the impact that it's had, the ripple effect that it's had throughout their entire community is just incredible.

So that's awesome. That's fantastic. And what a, what a way to describe the community that you guys both work for. So you've been chatting for a bit it for about 40 minutes now. We're going to start wrapping up. These are kind of my traditional closer questions. And Mike, you could take this one first. If you could give yourself one piece of advice from early on in your career, what would it be?

Yeah, we teach this now. It's become part of our principle teaching people. It's planning the day, planning tomorrow, the night before. Right. Being planned out is predictable success. Right. It's creating a deliberate reality cycle. And that's really what we teach. It's kind of goes back to the mindset pillar. It's getting people really dialed into what you want. If you manifest it, it's possible. But if you don't think about it, you're going to get caught up in the triage of the day. And so planning it out, getting those necessary things that have to be done, done. It's so important to have a sense of urgency and to be planned out. If I could go back in my earlier life as a business owner, as a critical manager for another place that I work for, planning it out and having a sense of urgency behind that plan would absolutely be the one thing that I would stay focused on.

Got it. Mary, same question.

I think that the advice that I would give my younger self would be that it's an oxymoron to say that I can move forward in fear. Fear always drives you backwards. Fear of the unknown, fear of where you're going, fear of it getting too big, whatever it is. But that fear will always drive you backwards. So saying, well, I'm just going to push through the fear. No, you got to like, you got to figure it out, you got to handle it and you got to deal and eliminate that fear or overcome that fear in order to move forwards. Because forward and fear don't go together. So that's my, you know.

Before my final question, I'm going to, I'm going to throw in a last minute one. There's nine pillars. Which one is your favorite, Mike?

So for me, I think, I think, I think you'd have to break them into three separate ones because we really teach them in categories. But if I were to give, if I were to give any one of them the most important thing, I think it would have to be, man, it's a toss up. I would have to say clarity. I think if we go to clarity in its own right, just presenting an unbelievable amount of clarity to our people leads to ease of accountability, leads to ease of coaching, training, and managing. And quite frankly, it leads to ease of target, being able to achieve your targets and goals and all that stuff. So I think clarity is really the key. And I know that's probably Mary's too, so she'll be upset.

Totally stole my pillar. Yeah, it's definitely clarity. Clarity is the biggest problem solver. That's what I love about it. If you're dealing with challenges in your business, if you're dealing with struggles, if you're seeing things not working, you're telling your people the same thing over and over again, it's almost always a clarity issue for me. And it's where I think most people struggle the most because it requires a really high level of communication. So, yeah, love clarity. If it's there, then everything else gets easier. Everything else does.

I 100% agree. And that is definitely a principle I have to live by, and I have to remind myself to do that all the time. So I'm glad you guys really underlined that favorite end of the podcast question for me. If you had to choose a song to be the soundtrack of your life.

What would it be?

Mary, you can go first.

That's perfect. I'll tell you, I had to. I had to make some choices here, and it was really difficult. But I'll tell you, Frank Sinatra, Fly Me to the Moon would probably be the soundtrack to my life.

All right.

Unexpected, but I love it. Mike, same question.

Wow. I don't know if mine's going to be that amazing, so I don't know, I could probably go down a lot of different rabbit holes. But I'll tell you that for me, as I think about that, I think about, like the Beatles, A day in the life. I think when I look at my younger life, I probably didn't have that daily routine that led to the habits that gave me the rewards and successes I needed. And I had to develop that through time. And so as I talk to my clients on a day to day basis, as Mary does, we talk about the daily routine that leads to exceptional habits and habits lead to success. And so I think that's really it. I mean, I don't know that I could go down the rabbit hole of all the other songs I could think about, but I think that's one that's led to some success for me, just having that daily routine and start like that.

Amazing. Great answers for both of you. Honestly, Mary, to the moon.

I gotta go get that now.

It's a really good one. Mike and Mary, this was a wonderful conversation for me. Really excited to have CEO Warrior as official Service Titan partners. This is not going to be the last piece of content we do together, so I'm really excited that the podcast got to kick this off.

And I really want to thank you.

For giving an hour of your time that is very precious to our audience. I know they're going to get a lot of value, value out of today's chat.

Thank you.

Yeah, we certainly appreciate you. Thanks so much.